San Diego

A potentially serious explosion on San Diego Bay was averted when a San Diego man who was refueling his boat found five road flares strapped to the starter, police said.

The owner of the boat, who asked that his name be withheld, was refueling his 38-foot Chriscraft on Tuesday morning at a fuel dock at the foot of Crosby Street when he decided to check the fluid levels in the engine room, said Lt. Ken Franke of the Harbor Police.

He found what he thought were five sticks of dynamite tied with black tape and strapped to the starter in such a position that the fuel might have exploded when the boat was started, Franke said.

The San Diego Fire Department bomb squad was called, and it turned out that the sticks were road flares, “but it would have had the same end result,” Franke said.

If there had been an explosion, the fuel station could have caught fire, as well as a large fishing boat and a Navy patrol craft, Franke said. Both vessels were evacuated.